Chapter 13- The Thing
Miffugan woke up with a start. He was standing in the middle of his parent's kitchen.
"What happened?" he asked looking around. His father was sitting at the table, which was now clean, with a notebook open. Snape was sitting across from him. He too, was writing in a notebook.
Anaka was standing on the side getting her hand bandaged by his mother. Remus was hovering nearby.
"What happened to your hand?" John asked worriedly. He ran over to Anaka.
"I'll be fine." She said as Mrs. Miffugan finished bandaging her hand.
"How are you feeling?" Remus asked giving him a funny look.
"Ok," John said shrugging, "But I'd like to know what happened."
"I think your father should tell you." His mother said icily.
"Should you even let him know?" Snape asked. He looked up from his notebook. John's father stopped writing and sighed. He seemed to grow 10 years older.
"John my boy, what do you remember?"
"I remember you mumbling some words. That's when everything went white." John answered. Snape wrote something down in his notebook then looked up again. John looked at him annoyed.
"Are you writing about me?" he asked.
"John, listen to your father!" his mother snapped.
" The phrase I said means Awake the demon. Goil can also be translated into light."
"Awake the demon/light?" John said confused. His father went on to explain what was in him and John listened with fascination and confusion.
"But why?" he asked quietly.
"I believe you can beat him! Once we learn to control it you can use it!"
"Exactly!" John said annoyed, "It! Thing! You don't know what it is!!! What….What's in me?!?!?!"
"We're trying to figure that out." Snape said gesturing to the books.
"You made it! You should know!" John said angrily to his father.
"I have an idea about what it may be…" he started but his wife interuppted him by putting up a hand.
"I think you've said enough Richard. It's time something was done. The only way we will know what this thing is is if we awaken it." She looked at her son gravely.
"Would you be willing to do that?"
Anaka watched John. A series of emotions passed over his face.
"I'll be here for you." She said softly. John looked at her and smiled sadly.
"We all will." Remus added. John looked at the ground. Then he nodded slightly.
"We can not do this here." Dumbledore said, thinking. Rich cleared his throat.
"Um, as you know we do have a great deal of money…."
"Oh yes!! We have houses in France, Italy, Spain, and we're building one in New York…" Mrs. Miffugan said brightening. She loved talking about their houses.
"Alania!" Richard said sternly. Alania grew quiet.
"Well, I renovated this old place a few years ago and I also added a…well…under ground laboratory."
"Really?" Dumbledore said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, follow me." Richard exited the kitchen. John watched as everyone followed him. He stayed in the kitchen for a minute. Anaka watched him as she started to walk away. Then she sighed and walked up to him.
"You want to know how I burned my hand?" she asked. He nodded.
"I was holding your hand while you were…unconscious I guess. It was warm at first, then it suddenly grew so hot that it glowed slightly and it burned my hand."
"I'm so sorry!!!" he said looking at her sadly. He took her burnt hand and kissed it gently. Anaka blushed.
"It's not your fault." She said. He let go of her hand and looked in her eyes.
"I don't know what's in me but I know I can hurt people. If they can't find a way to get rid of this then I think I'm going to leave."
"You can't just give up!" Anaka said surprised.
"I'll let them try for a while but….I'm dangerous."
"No your not." Anaka said sternly.
"You know you're beautiful when you're stubborn." John said smiling. Anaka smiled and they walked out of the room hand in hand.
*********************************************
Richard waited for Anaka and John to appear. The group was standing in front of a closet.
"It's not really a closet." Alania said winking.
Snape gave her a funny look.
"No duh." He mumbled.
"Well now that everyone's here," He said looked at Anaka and John, "I can show you my laboratory." He opened the door and there was a flight of stairs.
"Welcome to the closet!" Alania said walking down the stairs. The others followed and soon they came to a hallway. They walked down it and came to a great hall. There were machines everywhere and tons of other equipment.
"Richard!" Dumbledore said in awe.
"Yes. Impressive isn't it?" he said smiling.
They walked into the center of the complex. There was a small table full of tubes with bubbling liquid in it. Richard held up a small container. There was a yellow green substance in it.
"This is what I used on John when he was 4. It has nothing to do with how smart you are."
"Or how handsome." His mother added looking at Anaka.
Snape took the bottle and studied the liquid.
"You can have that sample Severus." Richard said. Snape nodded.
"Are you ready John?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes." He said squeezing Anaka's hand slightly.
"Let's get this over with." Remus said.
"Ok. Anaka step away." Richard said. Anaka walked up to her father. "Extepurtuie hanitable goil." He cried.
John became like stone once again and Anaka shivered.
"Continue." Dumbledore said sternly.
"Yes." Rich said clearing his throat.
"The next phrase is a little longer." He added, "Faughtosu adst euwtndoe guews coptsue!!" he yelled.
John's body seemed to radiate heat and the room soon grew hot. His skin became a silver color. His eyes seemed to glow and his hair became the same color as his eyes. His ears grew pointed, like elf's ears. Anaka watched with horror and amazement as his clothes ripped and a pair of glistening black wings grew from his back. A strange light was about him as the changing stopped. Mr. Miffugan flipped through some pages in a book.
"That's it." He whispered looking at his son. He put the book down and walked next to his wife.
John blinked a few times. He looked at his hands and arms and glanced back at his wings. He smiled as he unfolded and folded them.
"That felt strange," he said looking at his father. Mr. Miffugan looked at him in surprise and relief.
"Hello John. I was afraid you'd turn into another creature and not remember who you were." His father circled him slowly and Alania sighed with relief.
"So now what?" John asked anxiously, "I feel really weird. Like I'm full of energy!"
Anaka and her father stood next to Dumbledore quietly. They didn't know what had just happened but they decided that it was probably too strange to involve them.
"Professor," Remus whispered, "I have to go. McGonagol said she needed to talk to me about something. I'll be back in the morning to see if I can help."
Dumbledore nodded.
"Yes, you can go. For I too must attend to the business of the school. If we all disappear then people will become suspicious."
"Come on Anaka." Remus said as he and Dumbledore started to walk away.
"I'm just going to stay a little longer dad." She replied walking towards John. Remus frowned.
"Ana, I don't think you can help."
Anaka ignored her father and greeted John enthusiastically.
"How do you feel?" she asked him. He looked at her with his bright eyes.
"Energetic, happy, and like I have a lot of power in me."
"That's what we have to explore." Mr. Miffugan said to Snape as they took out their notebooks.
Remus stopped by the hallway and stared at his daughter. He felt like he had to protect her from what ever John had become.
"She'll be fine Remus. Snape will watch after her." Dumbledore whispered. He walked down the hall, leaving Remus to his thoughts.
Snape watched Dumbledore leave. Remus caught his eye and they stared at each other for a while. You better watch out for her Snape, Remus thought as he turned and walked away.
Severus shivered slightly as he looked back at John. He had never known that any man could create such a creature. Even now he was skeptical.
"Ok John," Richard said, "here's an apple. I want to you think of good things and concentrate on the apple."
John held the apple in his hand. His eyes glazed over as a white glow started to radiate from his hand. There was a small flash of light and then John handed the apple back to his father.
"How strange!" Alania replied as they looked at the apple. The apple was now a golden color. Rich hit it against the nearby table and his eyes widened.
"It's solid gold!" he exclaimed.
"A golden apple. Isn't that cool?" John replied smiling. Snape frowned and handed him another apple.
"Now think of something evil. Concentrate on that power you feel." He told John. Everyone watched as John's eyes became clouded. Slowly the apple in his hand started to rot. Then it quickened.
"Ok John that's enough." His father said writing in his book, "John I said stop!"
John couldn't hear them. The apple continued to rot and blacken until all that was left was a pile of ash. His eyes were cold as he dumped the ashes onto the floor.
"Wow," he said returning to his old self. The coldness left his eyes as quickly as it had appeared there.
"That was really weird." He said looking at his parents.
"I don't think I need to see anymore." Alania said softly. Seeing her son like this was just too painful. It hurt even more knowing her husband had been the one to awaken this thing in him. Richard watched his wife leave and sighed.
"Well, I guess we should run soon more tests."
**************************************************
They continued to test through out the night with Anaka watching. When it reached 11:00 Anaka decided to sit down and rest. By 11:30 she was half asleep and listening to the soft voices around her.
"It's getting late." Richard said quietly.
"I don't feel at all tired." Replied John. Snape grunted. He was feeling rather worn out.
"Snape you should get some rest. We can try some more tomorrow. I'd like to speak to my son alone anyway."
"Sure," Severus mumbled.
Anaka listened to his footsteps fade away. She opened her eyes slightly and found Mr. Miffugan staring at her with a queer look. Anaka quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping.
"John I want you to have this."
"Mom's old story book?" John asked skeptically.
"It's not a story book. It's not in runes for nothing." His father said sternly.
"But she read me stories out of it!" John argued.
"Yes well there's more in it then that! Tomorrow I want you to read through it. It will tell you how to change back to your self. I just awakened this thing in you but I never created it."
John's eyes widened in surprise.
"I'll teach your classes tomorrow, don't worry. Just get some sleep."
John sighed. He looked at the book in his hands. It brought up many memories of his childhood. Ever since he could remember he had known how to read the strange elfin runes. His mother had read him many stories out of it and when he could read he read them himself. But he was never able to read the back of the book.
"Ok," he said at last, "I'll take it and read it."
"Good. Why don't you take Ana up to?"
"Sure, dad."
John watched his father clean off the table. He walked up to Anaka and picked her up slowly, trying not to wake her. Anaka opened her eyes slightly and smiled at John. He smiled back.
"Hey," he said quietly, walking towards the door.
"Hey," Anaka replied, "where are we going?"
"I'm taking you back to the Gryffindor common room."
"I think I can walk." Anaka exclaimed as she clung to John. They were walking up the stairs and Anaka didn't being jostled around so much.
"Are you sure?" John asked smiling.
"Yes!" Anaka cried as he started to walk up the stairs faster.
"Ok!" he said laughing.
"Thank you!" Anaka said walking up the rest of the stairs.
"So what's that book?" she asked casually. The book was very curious to her. What was in it?
"Oh, just an old family book."
"Can I see it?" John hesitated.
"I guess so."
He handed the book to Anaka. The book was made of brown leather with a gold border. There was a giant rune on the front also in gold: .
"What does this mean?" Anaka asked pointing to the rune. John glanced at the cover. "It's nothing really. Ah, here we are." He said avoiding the question. Anaka handed the book back to him, a little annoyed.
"Well, where have you been?" The Fat Lady asked yawning.
Anaka whispered the password and turned to John.
"You better go before she notices you look different." She whispered watching the Fat Lady close her eyes. John nodded.
"I'll see you later." He said walking away.
That night Anaka couldn't get the rune and book out of her mind. Why would they have a book in runes? Why wouldn't he tell me what it meant? And what was in John if his dad didn't create it? Anaka sat up and grabbed a piece of paper. She drew a picture of the rune and then put it in her trunk. I'll go to the library and check it out tomorrow, Anaka thought as she fell asleep.
Miffugan woke up with a start. He was standing in the middle of his parent's kitchen.
"What happened?" he asked looking around. His father was sitting at the table, which was now clean, with a notebook open. Snape was sitting across from him. He too, was writing in a notebook.
Anaka was standing on the side getting her hand bandaged by his mother. Remus was hovering nearby.
"What happened to your hand?" John asked worriedly. He ran over to Anaka.
"I'll be fine." She said as Mrs. Miffugan finished bandaging her hand.
"How are you feeling?" Remus asked giving him a funny look.
"Ok," John said shrugging, "But I'd like to know what happened."
"I think your father should tell you." His mother said icily.
"Should you even let him know?" Snape asked. He looked up from his notebook. John's father stopped writing and sighed. He seemed to grow 10 years older.
"John my boy, what do you remember?"
"I remember you mumbling some words. That's when everything went white." John answered. Snape wrote something down in his notebook then looked up again. John looked at him annoyed.
"Are you writing about me?" he asked.
"John, listen to your father!" his mother snapped.
" The phrase I said means Awake the demon. Goil can also be translated into light."
"Awake the demon/light?" John said confused. His father went on to explain what was in him and John listened with fascination and confusion.
"But why?" he asked quietly.
"I believe you can beat him! Once we learn to control it you can use it!"
"Exactly!" John said annoyed, "It! Thing! You don't know what it is!!! What….What's in me?!?!?!"
"We're trying to figure that out." Snape said gesturing to the books.
"You made it! You should know!" John said angrily to his father.
"I have an idea about what it may be…" he started but his wife interuppted him by putting up a hand.
"I think you've said enough Richard. It's time something was done. The only way we will know what this thing is is if we awaken it." She looked at her son gravely.
"Would you be willing to do that?"
Anaka watched John. A series of emotions passed over his face.
"I'll be here for you." She said softly. John looked at her and smiled sadly.
"We all will." Remus added. John looked at the ground. Then he nodded slightly.
"We can not do this here." Dumbledore said, thinking. Rich cleared his throat.
"Um, as you know we do have a great deal of money…."
"Oh yes!! We have houses in France, Italy, Spain, and we're building one in New York…" Mrs. Miffugan said brightening. She loved talking about their houses.
"Alania!" Richard said sternly. Alania grew quiet.
"Well, I renovated this old place a few years ago and I also added a…well…under ground laboratory."
"Really?" Dumbledore said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, follow me." Richard exited the kitchen. John watched as everyone followed him. He stayed in the kitchen for a minute. Anaka watched him as she started to walk away. Then she sighed and walked up to him.
"You want to know how I burned my hand?" she asked. He nodded.
"I was holding your hand while you were…unconscious I guess. It was warm at first, then it suddenly grew so hot that it glowed slightly and it burned my hand."
"I'm so sorry!!!" he said looking at her sadly. He took her burnt hand and kissed it gently. Anaka blushed.
"It's not your fault." She said. He let go of her hand and looked in her eyes.
"I don't know what's in me but I know I can hurt people. If they can't find a way to get rid of this then I think I'm going to leave."
"You can't just give up!" Anaka said surprised.
"I'll let them try for a while but….I'm dangerous."
"No your not." Anaka said sternly.
"You know you're beautiful when you're stubborn." John said smiling. Anaka smiled and they walked out of the room hand in hand.
*********************************************
Richard waited for Anaka and John to appear. The group was standing in front of a closet.
"It's not really a closet." Alania said winking.
Snape gave her a funny look.
"No duh." He mumbled.
"Well now that everyone's here," He said looked at Anaka and John, "I can show you my laboratory." He opened the door and there was a flight of stairs.
"Welcome to the closet!" Alania said walking down the stairs. The others followed and soon they came to a hallway. They walked down it and came to a great hall. There were machines everywhere and tons of other equipment.
"Richard!" Dumbledore said in awe.
"Yes. Impressive isn't it?" he said smiling.
They walked into the center of the complex. There was a small table full of tubes with bubbling liquid in it. Richard held up a small container. There was a yellow green substance in it.
"This is what I used on John when he was 4. It has nothing to do with how smart you are."
"Or how handsome." His mother added looking at Anaka.
Snape took the bottle and studied the liquid.
"You can have that sample Severus." Richard said. Snape nodded.
"Are you ready John?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes." He said squeezing Anaka's hand slightly.
"Let's get this over with." Remus said.
"Ok. Anaka step away." Richard said. Anaka walked up to her father. "Extepurtuie hanitable goil." He cried.
John became like stone once again and Anaka shivered.
"Continue." Dumbledore said sternly.
"Yes." Rich said clearing his throat.
"The next phrase is a little longer." He added, "Faughtosu adst euwtndoe guews coptsue!!" he yelled.
John's body seemed to radiate heat and the room soon grew hot. His skin became a silver color. His eyes seemed to glow and his hair became the same color as his eyes. His ears grew pointed, like elf's ears. Anaka watched with horror and amazement as his clothes ripped and a pair of glistening black wings grew from his back. A strange light was about him as the changing stopped. Mr. Miffugan flipped through some pages in a book.
"That's it." He whispered looking at his son. He put the book down and walked next to his wife.
John blinked a few times. He looked at his hands and arms and glanced back at his wings. He smiled as he unfolded and folded them.
"That felt strange," he said looking at his father. Mr. Miffugan looked at him in surprise and relief.
"Hello John. I was afraid you'd turn into another creature and not remember who you were." His father circled him slowly and Alania sighed with relief.
"So now what?" John asked anxiously, "I feel really weird. Like I'm full of energy!"
Anaka and her father stood next to Dumbledore quietly. They didn't know what had just happened but they decided that it was probably too strange to involve them.
"Professor," Remus whispered, "I have to go. McGonagol said she needed to talk to me about something. I'll be back in the morning to see if I can help."
Dumbledore nodded.
"Yes, you can go. For I too must attend to the business of the school. If we all disappear then people will become suspicious."
"Come on Anaka." Remus said as he and Dumbledore started to walk away.
"I'm just going to stay a little longer dad." She replied walking towards John. Remus frowned.
"Ana, I don't think you can help."
Anaka ignored her father and greeted John enthusiastically.
"How do you feel?" she asked him. He looked at her with his bright eyes.
"Energetic, happy, and like I have a lot of power in me."
"That's what we have to explore." Mr. Miffugan said to Snape as they took out their notebooks.
Remus stopped by the hallway and stared at his daughter. He felt like he had to protect her from what ever John had become.
"She'll be fine Remus. Snape will watch after her." Dumbledore whispered. He walked down the hall, leaving Remus to his thoughts.
Snape watched Dumbledore leave. Remus caught his eye and they stared at each other for a while. You better watch out for her Snape, Remus thought as he turned and walked away.
Severus shivered slightly as he looked back at John. He had never known that any man could create such a creature. Even now he was skeptical.
"Ok John," Richard said, "here's an apple. I want to you think of good things and concentrate on the apple."
John held the apple in his hand. His eyes glazed over as a white glow started to radiate from his hand. There was a small flash of light and then John handed the apple back to his father.
"How strange!" Alania replied as they looked at the apple. The apple was now a golden color. Rich hit it against the nearby table and his eyes widened.
"It's solid gold!" he exclaimed.
"A golden apple. Isn't that cool?" John replied smiling. Snape frowned and handed him another apple.
"Now think of something evil. Concentrate on that power you feel." He told John. Everyone watched as John's eyes became clouded. Slowly the apple in his hand started to rot. Then it quickened.
"Ok John that's enough." His father said writing in his book, "John I said stop!"
John couldn't hear them. The apple continued to rot and blacken until all that was left was a pile of ash. His eyes were cold as he dumped the ashes onto the floor.
"Wow," he said returning to his old self. The coldness left his eyes as quickly as it had appeared there.
"That was really weird." He said looking at his parents.
"I don't think I need to see anymore." Alania said softly. Seeing her son like this was just too painful. It hurt even more knowing her husband had been the one to awaken this thing in him. Richard watched his wife leave and sighed.
"Well, I guess we should run soon more tests."
**************************************************
They continued to test through out the night with Anaka watching. When it reached 11:00 Anaka decided to sit down and rest. By 11:30 she was half asleep and listening to the soft voices around her.
"It's getting late." Richard said quietly.
"I don't feel at all tired." Replied John. Snape grunted. He was feeling rather worn out.
"Snape you should get some rest. We can try some more tomorrow. I'd like to speak to my son alone anyway."
"Sure," Severus mumbled.
Anaka listened to his footsteps fade away. She opened her eyes slightly and found Mr. Miffugan staring at her with a queer look. Anaka quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping.
"John I want you to have this."
"Mom's old story book?" John asked skeptically.
"It's not a story book. It's not in runes for nothing." His father said sternly.
"But she read me stories out of it!" John argued.
"Yes well there's more in it then that! Tomorrow I want you to read through it. It will tell you how to change back to your self. I just awakened this thing in you but I never created it."
John's eyes widened in surprise.
"I'll teach your classes tomorrow, don't worry. Just get some sleep."
John sighed. He looked at the book in his hands. It brought up many memories of his childhood. Ever since he could remember he had known how to read the strange elfin runes. His mother had read him many stories out of it and when he could read he read them himself. But he was never able to read the back of the book.
"Ok," he said at last, "I'll take it and read it."
"Good. Why don't you take Ana up to?"
"Sure, dad."
John watched his father clean off the table. He walked up to Anaka and picked her up slowly, trying not to wake her. Anaka opened her eyes slightly and smiled at John. He smiled back.
"Hey," he said quietly, walking towards the door.
"Hey," Anaka replied, "where are we going?"
"I'm taking you back to the Gryffindor common room."
"I think I can walk." Anaka exclaimed as she clung to John. They were walking up the stairs and Anaka didn't being jostled around so much.
"Are you sure?" John asked smiling.
"Yes!" Anaka cried as he started to walk up the stairs faster.
"Ok!" he said laughing.
"Thank you!" Anaka said walking up the rest of the stairs.
"So what's that book?" she asked casually. The book was very curious to her. What was in it?
"Oh, just an old family book."
"Can I see it?" John hesitated.
"I guess so."
He handed the book to Anaka. The book was made of brown leather with a gold border. There was a giant rune on the front also in gold: .
"What does this mean?" Anaka asked pointing to the rune. John glanced at the cover. "It's nothing really. Ah, here we are." He said avoiding the question. Anaka handed the book back to him, a little annoyed.
"Well, where have you been?" The Fat Lady asked yawning.
Anaka whispered the password and turned to John.
"You better go before she notices you look different." She whispered watching the Fat Lady close her eyes. John nodded.
"I'll see you later." He said walking away.
That night Anaka couldn't get the rune and book out of her mind. Why would they have a book in runes? Why wouldn't he tell me what it meant? And what was in John if his dad didn't create it? Anaka sat up and grabbed a piece of paper. She drew a picture of the rune and then put it in her trunk. I'll go to the library and check it out tomorrow, Anaka thought as she fell asleep.
